From Library Journal
This new overview of the vast and influential postrevolutionary avant garde of Russia is just one of more than 50 titles from a Russian-English publishing partnership that is releasing its backlist to the U.S. market for the first time. In some ways, this work exemplifies the best qualities of these books. Written by a well-qualified Russian scholar, the text is thoroughly documented yet remains accessible to the lay reader. And the illustrations offer fine reproductions of many works that have been only seldom if ever published in the West. However, the text here is haphazardly organized; beginning chronologically, the chapters shift to focus on individuals and associations and then on specific media. Also, given that many of these images are little known, it would have been nice to indicate their provenance or current location. The Great Utopia (LJ 3/1/93) remains the more coherent standard work on this subject, and most libraries will find it sufficient. Larger, specialized collections may want to consider this for the images, and all libraries should keep an eye out for Parkstone's other offerings.?Eric Bryant, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
The Russian Avant-Garde movement which flowered so briefly before it was cruelly snuffed out has been well-documented through those of its exponents, such as Kandinsky, El-Lissitzky, and Malevich, who managed to escape to the West, as well as through the works of Alexander Rodchenko and Vladimir Tatlin, the founder of Constructivism, both of whom survived in the Soviet Union by carefully refraining from practising their art. The magnificent array of avant-gardist works in Russian museums, in a plethora of styles, media, and contexts, are all reproduced in beautiful color for the first time. There are paintings, sculptures, book illustrations, sketches, and prints, evidence of the multiple talents so cruelly suppressed. The works are mostly from the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.